Over at Ctrl-Shift Ive tried to sketch out the impact of VRM (buyer-centric commerce, customer-managed relationships, user-driven identity) on public services:It seems to me the effects of VRM on public services will be of four sorts. It will improve public services. It will cut costs. It will de-tox the “database state”. And it is the perfect basis for co-creation of our public servic...

Two important reports came out this month on the future of public services. First is the 'Putting people into public services' report of the National Consumer Council. They look at the critical area of regulation, often not considered by commentators but crucial in ensuring services, whether publicly or privately provided, meet standards and expectations. Regulators are often remote, hidden and ha...

Julian Ware-Lane, Labour's candidate for Castle Point, has added his voice to the Unison campaign to create a fairer society. "I believe we need public services to help our economy recover from the recession. Our services look after people in good times and in bad and are making our country a fairer place. Our public services need investment, not cuts and privatisation." "I have been a public...

The fact that the UK leads the world in outsourcing public services is nothing to celebrate, the Public and Commercial Services union says.

Please go here and sign up to ask No.10 to employ John seddon as Public Services Tzar to bring his Systems Thinking methodology to public services. Spread the word. Or tell Call me Dave. If you don't know who John Seddon is, search my old posts or buy the book - "Systems thinking in the public services"

The Prime Minister has outlined a bold vision for transforming England's public services. In a Cabinet Office report “Excellence and fairness: Achieving world class public services” published today, he argues that although public services have improved dramatically over the past decade they are not yet world-class and a new stage of reform is required.

It seems extraordinary to me, that hot on the heels of conference having, so recently, resoundingly rejected the marketization of the NHS and the concept of outsourcing to “any willing provider” – Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander yet again embrace an approach to delivering public services in the Open Public Services White Paper that flies

Yesterday I had a little bleat about the need for public services to provide a service. I want to look at another aspect of that today and, again, it comes from simple Harriet's words: "tackling socio-economic disadvantage and narrowing gaps in outcomes for people from different backgrounds is a core function of public services". Underlying those words is the belief that "tackling socio-econo...

Generally speaking, the think-tank Reform is on the side of those of us who think that our public services are a pile of shit—although they aim to be a little more contructive than merely observing that our public services are a pile of shit. Their mission is "to set out a better way to deliver public services and economic prosperity." A couple of days ago, I received an email from one Dale ...

"Some have argued that we should cut public services," Alistair Darling said on Wednesday, before adding "immediately". That one word add-on to Labour's standard attack on the Tories was perhaps the most telling moment in his whole budget speech, an implicit concession that the two frontbenches are now agreed that there will be big cuts to services. The dispute between the parties is no longe...